Chapter XXVII.

How anger should be repressed.

We ought then to restrain
every movement of anger and moderate it under the direction of
discretion, that we may not by blind rage be hurried into that which is
condemned by Solomon: “The wicked man expends all his anger, but
the wise man dispenses it bit by bit,”20052005Prov. xxix. 11.
i.e., a fool is inflamed by the passion of his anger to avenge himself;
but a wise man, by the ripeness of his counsel and moderation little by
little diminishes it, and gets rid of it. Something of the same kind
too is this which is said by the Apostle: “Not avenging
yourselves, dearly beloved: but give place to wrath,”20062006Rom. xii. 19. i.e., do not under the compulsion of wrath
proceed to vengeance, but give place to wrath, i.e., do not let your
hearts be confined in the straits of impatience and cowardice so that,
when a fierce storm of passion rises, you cannot endure it; but be ye
enlarged in your hearts, receiving the adverse waves of anger in the
wide gulf of that love which “suffereth all things, beareth all
things;”200720071 Cor. xiii. 7. and so your mind
will be enlarged with wide long-suffering and patience, and will have
within it safe recesses of counsel, in which the foul smoke of anger
will be received and be diffused and forthwith vanish away; or else the
passage may be taken in this way: we give place to wrath, as often as
we yield with humble and tranquil mind to the passion of another, and
bow to the impatience of the passionate, as if we admitted that we
deserved any kind of wrong. But those who twist the meaning of the
perfection of which the Apostle speaks so as to make out that those
give place to anger, who go away from a man in a rage, seem to me not
to cut off but rather to foment the incitement to quarrelling, for
unless a neighbour’s wrath is overcome at once by amends being
humbly made, a man provokes rather than avoids it by his flight. And
there is something like this that Solomon says: “Be not hasty in
thy spirit to be wroth, for anger reposes in the bosom of fools;”
and: “Be not quick to rush into a quarrel, lest thou repent
thereof at the last.”20082008Eccl. vii. 9; Prov. xxv. 8. For he does not
blame a hasty exhibition of quarrelling and anger in such a way as to
praise a tardy one. In the same way too must this be taken: “A
fool declares his anger in the very same hour, but a prudent man hides
his shame.”20092009Prov. xii. 16. For he does not lay
it down that a shameful outburst of anger ought to be hidden by wise
men in such a way that while he blames a speedy outburst of anger he
fails to forbid a tardy one, as certainly, if owing to human weakness
it does burst forth, he means that it should be hidden for this reason,
that while for the moment it is wisely covered up, it may be destroyed
forever. For the nature of anger is such that when it is given room it
languishes and perishes, but if openly exhibited, it burns more and
more. The hearts then should be enlarged and opened wide, lest they be
confined in the narrow straits of cowardice, and be filled with the
swelling surge of wrath, and so we become unable to receive what the
prophet calls the “exceeding broad” commandment of God in
our narrow heart, or to say with the prophet: “I have run the way
of thy commandments for thou hast enlarged my heart.”20102010Ps. cxviii.
(cxix.) 32. For that long-suffering is wisdom we are
taught by very clear passages of Scripture: for “a man who is
long-suffering is great in prudence; but a coward is very
foolish.”20112011Prov. xiv. 29. And therefore
Scripture says of him who to his credit asked the gift of wisdom from
the Lord: “God gave Solomon wisdom and prudence
460exceeding much, and largeness
of heart as the sand of the sea for multitude.”201220121 Kings iv. 29.